Vancouver Wedding – Barbara and Steve

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I got to work again with the wonderful Nicole Aurelie of Nicole Aurelie Photography (Facebook page) and jumped at the chance. She was shooting Barbara and Steve’s Vancouver wedding and I got to be her second shooter. Basically I get to not worry (as much) about the must have shots, but instead get to get details, shots from the side, get a different angle on the ceremony, and do some more out of the box thinking. Of course there’s also the dragging around bags, getting Nicole things she needs, keeping an eye out for hands out of place and any collars out of sorts.

Barbara and Steve were awesome. She’s fun and bubbly, he is a military man with a sense of pride and order about him. We started at the Sandman Hotel in downtown Vancouver with the ladies getting themselves ready.

Barbara and Steven — The Makeup Artist Stretch

Details, details, details… you know I love details!

From there we headed to the ceremony at the little church where they were married. A simple but beautiful ceremony, followed by some lovely family photos under the trees. I tell you I got a workout wrangling people for Nicole and getting the many, many family members out of the background of the photos!

From there we went to the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park for formals.

Reception was held at the BC Regiment office (I told you that Steve was a military man) which was done up nicely. A normal wedding reception if you ignore the tank in the middle of the floor 🙂 We snuck out for a few quick photos on the downtown streets before the reception proper started.

When things did get started the dinner was served and merriment started. Speeches, the shoe game, and then the band started up.

The couple on their first dance.

Everyone got in on the dance party after!

Many thanks to Nicole for bringing me in for this wedding, and to Barbara and Steve for being so great!

Vancouver Summer Wedding – Galen and Patricia

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The story of this lovely backyard summer wedding in rural Vancouver, for me, makes it even more fun than normal. Less than a day before I arrived I was running the Tough Mudder race in Whistler with 10 of my closest co-workers. It was over five hours of obstacles and slogging through the mud, dinner, a few hours sleep, then a 2 hour drive back home, pick up my gear (packed the day before of course, and then back to Vancouver to join these two awesome folks for the day.

Meeting and Wedding

I met Galen and Patricia through my dear friend Geri, who I had the pleasure of attending her wedding as a friend and guest long before I was nearly as into photography as I am now. Geri never had a “real” wedding photographer at her wedding and has always regretted it, and made sure that these two had one, and I was very honoured to capture this day for them.

2016-06-20 Vancouver Wedding — Bonus: hidden cat

The ceremony was a simple home wedding in the couples basement suite with a small ceremony and a few close friends.

Love Is More Sweet With A (Bit) Of Struggle

Galen and Patricia faced some fairly big hurdles to get here. They met online while he lived up here and she lived in the southern US, and in addition to all the normal challenges you can expect with this sort of meeting. I have no idea how I would have navigated the first date to engagement to moving in together part! Patricia had literally arrived with all her stuff days before, adding the stress of moving to another country to the stress of a wedding. Sometimes simpler is better 🙂

Backyard Formal Photography

The backyard was simple but great for the formals.

And a bit of smooching as well. They were pretty good at that part though!

Galen and Patricia, wishing you all the best and thank you for the great memories and the great day! Especially the part where the cats kept on chasing the pen used for signing the registry, and Galen taunted one of them just a little bit too much and ended up with a set of claws in his… well, that’s maybe a story for another day!

Styled East Indian Wedding Makeup Photography in Queen Elizabeth Park Vancouver

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Now and then I get to work with some amazingly talented folks for special projects. This was a styled wedding shoot set up by MJ from Kiss of Colours Beauty. We decided we wanted a nice outside location and that the great Queen Elizabeth Park in East Vancouver was the right spot for it. It combines a variety of interesting locations with outdoor scenery that’s hard to beat for the background to a wedding!

This actually was in the works for about a month, trying to figure out the logistics, and with Vancouver weather being what it is. This last weekend though all the elements finally came together and we headed up to Queen E. Park in the late afternoon to get some of that delicious late afternoon sun. The model here is Cassia Kitagawa. I’ve worked with her before and she’s a joy to work with and a consummate professional.

Seriously, how amazing does Cassia look? The colours, the jewelry, the makeup… yowza!

Part of this shoot was me learning about Indian wedding traditions. Learning about the bangles (very important), the different types of sari that one would wear, the quality of jewelry, and of course watching the (many) steps in properly putting on the sari…

We found this adorable little steps and bridge setup below the restaurant which, with the lush greenery in the background made for some stellar images.

And a shot of the full team (minus photographer)!

Here’s where you can find MJ and more of her amazing makeup work:

Facebook – Kiss of Colours Beauty
Instagram – @kissofcoloursbeauty

And you can find Cassia:

Instagram – @cassiabrancokita

Denis Smirnov and Irina Smirnova's Wedding - 4/11/2015 - Photography by Bailward Weddings

Denis and Irina – Stanley Park Wedding

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Denis has been my friend for many years now, and I was honoured when he asked me to be his wedding photographer. It was the first time I had met his bride-to-be, Irina, but she made me feel like part of the family right away. The two are awesome together and I enjoy meeting up when we can for dinner, drinks, and (of course) techie talk (we are both programmers and tech guys as well). This was the first wedding I’ve done in Stanley Park, and it was a great day for firsts. The ceremony at the Brockton Clubhouse was filled with family and friends, followed by some formal portraits on the grounds nearby. Stanley Park‘s location in downtown Vancouver has a great view all around, so no matter where you look there are mountains, or sea, or rolling green lawns. It’s a meticulously maintained area. The clubhouse has some interesting history as well, and has been around since 1927.